hrotfandomcom-20200215-history
HROT: Brink of Annihilation
Brink of Annihilation is the second book in the main trilogy. It takes place just days after the ending of Spawn of War, and details the journey to reach The Warnger, the separation of the main characters, and the reunion to finish the job. Development Kyle and Tony began writing Brink of Annihilation immediately after finishing the previous book, hoping to deepen the story and infuse more of the surrounding lore which they had imagined while working on Spawn of War. Scott became almost entirely disconnected from the development, as his involvement in the previous entry had dwindled throughout its writing and he now served more as an audience member than a contributor. Tony released the role of doing the actual writing almost entirely to Kyle, and instead listened as he wrote and helped brainstorm the direction of the story, only writing the chapter "Blame" himself. Several key moments in the book were changed over time as the needs of the series and plot of the novel became more apparent, as detailed in the Trivia section below. Synopsis The book begins on Harout's Bed, as Blazing A and The Warnger are battling to determine whether or not Harout will be awakened. The Warnger fires upon HROT, hoping to dishearten Blazing A if his son is dead. On HROT, Tony and Kyle's funeral for their friends is interrupted as The Warnger's blast strikes and Kieran and Ass Cat are killed. They then vow to head for Harout's Bed immediately. They commandeer a spaceship and make several stops along the way to the Bed, picking up a new ally along with several familiar ones. Once Harout's Bed is reached, The Warnger humiliates the group by killing two of their members and sending the rest hurtling in different directions across the galaxy. While the group is separated, Tony's relationship with Marie grows just as his relationship with Leon worsens, Kyle struggles to hold back NK Flo from taking him over entirely, and TF, Crunk, and Dom must endure horrific torture at the hands of a new foe, and come upon a familiar face in the process. Eventually, those who survive the separation reunite and take to Harout's Bed again. This time, Kyle is able to slay The Warnger, but unfortunately, NK Flo's hold over him takes full impact and he loses his former self entirely. Even as NK Flo proves victorious, Harout awakens in the background. In the epilogue, two strange entities become aware of Harout's awakening. Characters *Tony Ogle (The Deacon) *Kyle Taylor (The Red Man, NK Flo) *Crunk *The Fosters (TF) *Alicia Katz *Marie Finch *Doctor Blinkty *Cheesecawk (Polyatomic Ion) *Leon Dovesi *Kieran O'Neill *Chris Felton *Dominic Mathias *Jack Barnes *Stephen Cannon *Michael Yacovetta *Hovermind *Ambassador Bean *The Warnger *Blazing A *Scott Foreman (uncredited) *Alex Katz (uncredited) *David Byland (uncredited) *Ass Cat (uncredited) *Deathkiller (uncredited) *KIrk DeGonia (uncredited) *Taylor Cope (uncredited) *Sehr (uncredited) *Ascensdion (uncredited) *Harout Doumanian (uncredited) Deaths (in order) *Kieran O'Neill *Ass Cat *Deathkiller *Kirk DeGonia *Alicia Katz *Michael Yacovetta *Stephen Cannon *Chris Felton *Ambassador Bean *Taylor Cope *Doctor Blinkty *The Fosters *Jack Barnes *Blazing A *Hovermind *The Warnger Trivia *The writers wanted to make Brink of Annihilation take the story in a significantly darker direction compared to Spawn of War, as the threat of the destruction of the universe needed to appear as grim as possible. **They wrote the chapter "Broken Titty" as a brief respite and final moment of pure enjoyment between the whole group before the tone of the series nosedived. *The conflict between the group which occured in the second act of The Man is alluded to much more in this book than in the previous, as that struggle had not been conceived until the writing of Brink of Annihilation. **This is also why Leon becomes far more hostile to Tony compared to his demeanor in Spawn of War. *The two characters in the epilogue are Sehr and Ascensdion. *This is the only book featuring Scott, Tony, and Kyle which does not feature Shannon. *Scott is not credited in the book as only his deceased spirit is encountered by Tony. **This same rule applies to Alex and David. *This is the first chronological appearance of Marie, Chris, Bean, Deathkiller, Kirk, Taylor, Sehr, and Ascensdion. *There were many revisions to what was originally supposed to happen in Brink of Annihilation: **Pore was not supposed to die in Spawn of War but was going to turn good and then be killed by The Warnger midway through the second book. However, the writers decided this made Scott's death pointless and killed her off, giving Alicia the death they had planned for her. ***Due to Pore's survival, there was also going to be a viscious love triangle between Kyle, Pore, and Alicia, which was also scrapped. **Kyle was originally going to die at the end of the book after killing The Warnger, but the writers decided this would be a waste of the potential of the NK Flo arc and Kyle's character as a whole, and so kept him alive and had him go mad instead. **Michael's rape was a near-impulse decision by Tony. It was originally brought up in a humorous context, but then he and Kyle decided that it would be an effective emotional punch in the gut and put it in, much to Kyle's reluctance. **TF was going to try to leave the group until Crunk convinced him to stay, and then die during the final battle rather than in Doctor Blinkty's lab. This was before Doctor Blinkty and Polyatomic Ion's characters were developed. **Stephen was intended to survive past the escape from HROT and die during the final battle, but was rewritten to die before Jack and before Tony, Marie, and Leon returned to Cömic. **Marie and Chris were initially going to be partners in bounty hunting, but then the writers wanted to put their old friend Dom in the story and made him Chris's partner instead and made Marie's character a lone wolf.